Conceived by Andrew Stuck from the Museum of Walking, in collaboration with walking artist, Ruth Broadbent, Drawn to the Skyline was first run in the Winter of 2017 and on subsequent occasions thereafter, including a commission from Team London Bridge for the London Festival of Architecture in June 2019.

We all know how easy it is to snap a great view, especially when an opportunity like the one here is offered from the top of a tall building, but many of us find it far harder to capture it in a drawing or a sketch. More often we see the skyline from the ground while walking through a city or town. Capturing the essence of a skyline in a drawing or a sketch while on the move is something more to accomplish.  If that’s something that you would like to master then join us on this walkshop.

If you are looking for inspiration on how to approach walking and drawing in a creative, experimental and fun way, this is the walkshop for you.  This is an alternative way to look at, draw and immerse ourselves in a skyline.  We will begin with a drawing of a skyline view and then walk into the skyline, drawing as we go.

Drawing is considered in its widest sense, from pen and pencil on paper to performance, so there will be plenty of opportunities to embrace imagination and abstract, as well as real and observed details.

Suitable for beginners and those more experienced. You will be in a small group – the walkshop capacity is limited to 8 people. Ideal for anyone wanting to generate new artwork and ideas to develop their own art practice or to add to a student art portfolio.

• What happens on a “Drawn to the Skyline” walkshop:

We begin at Tate Modern, where we ask you to travel by lift / elevator to the viewing gallery of the Blavatnik building, 10 floors up, to meet for the start of the walkshop.  The gallery offers 360 degree views of London’s skyline. From here, we will invite you to try your hand at a technique to capture elements of the skyline – we will show you how. The Viewing Gallery is no longer available to the public – since 2018.

We then travel to ground level (level 1 of the Blavatnik building), walk over the Turbine Hall to leave the galleries by the ‘River Entrance’, to cross the river by the Millennium Bridge.  We will encourage you to try out some individual and small group drawing activities, as we cross the bridge.  On reaching the north bank, we bear right, and walk through One Chance Court to St Paul’s Churchyard, and stop briefly at 25 Cannon Street to try a further exercise.

We travel to the roof top terrace of One New Exchange (level 6) to capture a skyline view of Tate Modern and the landmark buildings along the south bank.  Returning to ground level, we walk around the base of St Paul’s, choosing an intimate coffee shop in Carter Lane to conclude the walkshop.

Please note that the majority of the route is accessible, however, there is a point where one needs to negotiate a few steps – if you have mobility issues, do let us know and we can try to adjust the route accordingly.

• What you should bring and what we provide:

Participants were provided with all the materials they needed, but if they had their own sketchbook, they were encouraged to bring it. Be aware that there is a bag search as you enter the Blavatnik building.

If you can, try to come unencumbered by bags. We tend to run walkshops in all weathers and in all seasons, so come prepared, and do bring gloves, a waterproof, a fold-up umbrella and wear comfy shoes.

Following the walkshop we will send you a resource list of any references or images that we refer to during the walkshop. 

If you arrive early for the walkshop, we would encourage you to visit the Living Cities exhibition on Level 4 of the Blavatnik building.

We have been out exploring routes and view points including, a line to St Paul’s from the Point in Greenwich, views surrounding Hilly Fields in Brockley, and from rooftop terraces along the Thames.  We have recruited help from the team at Open Street Map, Europeana and the GEM Museums and Galleries network.

Drawing lead for these walkshops is Ruth Broadbent, an artist and associate lecturer who specialises in drawing and sculpture, including combining the two. She will be supported by Andrew Stuck, Founder of the Museum of Walking, an urban designer who when taking his Masters failed his drawing module twice….

What participants told us on previous Drawn to the Skyline walkshops:  

“Thank you for making this morning’s expedition such fun! I looked with new eyes at things I had not noticed before. I’m certainly going to try more skyline sketches from Tate’s viewing platform. Ruth obviously has so many good ideas and such a friendly way of communicating them.” Dec17 participant.

Resource list:

Drawn to the Skyline – experimental drawing, sketching walkshop with Ruth Broadbent – Tate Modern to St Paul’s

Welcome to our Drawn to the Skyline Resources – we hope you find this helpful and thank you for taking part.

As this walkshop is an alternative approach to skylines rather than traditional drawing, we’ve only listed artists who are more experimental in their approach to introduce some new references and ways of working that you may not be aware of.

Follow Ruth on Twitter @Ruth_HBroadbent or visit her website.

Techniques Ruth demonstrated:

• Till Roll Skyline (deconstructing and reconstructing the skyline)
• Scribble Walk
• Draw a line >  Walk a line
• Vertical slice (framing the view)
• Looking back / looking forwards

Artists to which we referred during the walkshop (and others we have thought of since):

• Boyle Family
• Sarah Cullen    Drawing machine in a lamp holder contraption – see image beneath November 2013 entry
• Hamish Fulton    Listen to Hamish Fulton Talking Walking 
• Monika Grzymala    Ice-rink drawing made by freezing watercolour into lines made by skaters:  Ein Grad über Null(One Degree above Zero) April 1, 2000
• Mona Hatoum     Performance Still 1985–95
• Rebecca Horn       Pencil Mask, Finger Gloves Performances 2 (1973) 
• Pia Linz        In Adolphs et al (2010) Linie, Line, Linea. DuMont Buchverlag. And in this video.
• Richard Long     A Line Made by Walking (1967), Sound Circle (1990), Text works…
• Julie Mehretu   Tate Modern has a Mehretu work in Living Cities (Level 4, Room 2):  (Lots of other videos online)
• John Virtue      John Virtue: London Paintings (2005, National Gallery, London, Yale University Press). Also: National Gallery / Courtauld websites: images & interviews from Virtue’s 2005 London drawings and paintings exhibitions. Video: Portrait of John Virtue the artist by P/D Andy Robbins (The Culture Show BBC 2) 
• Stephen Wiltshire    http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/

Web resources we were recommended for skyline views:

Created by Adrian Murphy from Europaena – Europeana curated a gallery of skylines from the collections of museums, galleries, libraries and archives across Europe
Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitised items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for.

This resource recommended by Henry McGhie of the University of Manchester

Galleries:    Tate Gallery (London), Drawing Room (London), Drawing Center (New York)

Other advice and suggestions came from:

Emma Miles, Learning Manager: Families, Schools and Communities at Sir John Soane’s Museum and Jayne Young, Education Officer, National Coal Mining Museum for England

Authors to which we referred during the walkshop (and others we have thought of since):

Robert MacFarlane – The Old Ways, a journey on foot (Penguin 2012)
Rebecca Solnit – Wanderlust, a history of walking (Granta 2001)

What was in the pencil case:

• Pilot V5 Liquid Ink Rollerball 0.5mm tip-Black from Amazon
• Stabilo point 88 Fineliner, Black from Amazon
• Pencil case from WH Smith
• Water barrel paintbrush from Flying Tiger
• Rowney Sketching Pencil
• Rubber bands, piece of string, kitchen towel
• Hand warmer from Ellis Brigham